Singapore and Malaysia will renew efforts to end a series of long-running disputes that have soured bilateral ties, the prime ministers of the two countries said today after a "friendly" meeting here.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters after meeting his Singapore counterpart, Goh Chok Tong, that both nations had to think "out of the box" to find a solution to their many unresolved issues.

Abdullah, who was making his first visit to Singapore since taking over from Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Oct 31 last year, stressed the two nations should try to work together through dialogue, with arbitration a last resort.

"I have suggested to Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong that I would prefer that we discuss," Abdullah told a joint press conference at the state Istana complex.

"I feel that we should not allow these bilateral issues to remain unresolved or later on to pass over to somebody else or a third party or to arbitration.

"We have to find some other ways, some other strategies in order to resolve all these issues and I am happy that Prime Minister Chok Tong has said okay, he is agreeable to suggestions and was asking me what are the specific things that I would like to suggest."

Frank exchange

Goh, who has been Singapore's prime minister since 1990, also spoke in an optimistic tone.

"I had a very good, frank and friendly exchange with Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi," Goh said.

"We took advantage of his courtesy visit to review our bilateral relations and basically both of us are determined to find ways to put our bilateral relations on the right track.

"It's important that we do so not just for ourselves but also for Asean."

Singapore and Malaysia are among the founding members of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations grouping.

The two nations have had an at-times extremely testy relationship that began before the city-state left the Malaysian federation in 1965 and became an independent nation.

Among the thorny issues are the price of raw water Malaysia supplies to Singapore, a prospective bridge linking the countries, the use of Malaysian air space by Singaporean military aircraft and the ownership of a rocky islet.

They are also locked in a legal battle over land reclamation works being carried out by Singapore in waters between their borders, with the matter before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

Abdullah was in Singapore for a one-day visit as part of a tour of the 10 Asean countries traditionally undertaken by newly installed regional leaders. - AFP